Lost Job

Wow. Today was quite the day. I had two back to back zoom meetings scheduled. The first one was a National AP Back-to-School meeting. It was 2 1/2 hours long. At the beginning of the meeting they were talking about AP coordinator eligibility. This came up and I took a screen shot. My heart dropped. You can't be an AP coordinator if you have a child that will take an AP test. I have Preston. I sat through the rest of the 2 1/2 hour meeting stunned. We had a break and I went downstairs where Mike was working. He was on a zoom call. He muted it and asked me how my meeting was going. I said, "Not good. I think I just lost my job."

Anyway, as soon as the meeting was over I went straight to Alta. I only had a short window before my next meeting. I wanted to see Christine Astle because she is who asked me to apply for the job and really pushed for me to get it. She wasn't in her office. I went to Paula's office and asked her if Christine was there. She said they were all in a counselors' meeting. (Christine is the head counselor.) Paula asked me what was up and I said, "You know what I keep saying about chickens?" Paula answered, "What happened." Paula had been asking me how come I wasn't moving into my new office. I told her I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched. Everyone kept telling me I had the job. I knew I had the job, but something was holding me back. I never thought it would be this though. I told Paula and Cindy what happened. Cindy walked in in the middle of our conversation. She was the counseling secretary that just retired. When I left I told them goodbye, I had to go lose my job. I walked out of the office and Jarod Tucker saw me. He was the one that officially offered me the job. He asked to speak with me. We went in his office and he started telling me stuff about talking with the district and HR and things like that. I said, "Let me stop you right there. I am interested in what you have to say, but......" I showed him the screenshot I took and his jaw just dropped. He wanted to make sure that I knew that no one was aware of this policy. That does not surprise me. It is so random. Shannon Kershaw was single and didn't have any children, so that would probably have never been on her radar. The entire administration is newish here, so they just didn't know. At the end of our talk Jarod said that he had called me in because the district wanted me to renew my teaching certificate, but then I would get teacher pay. Ugh. The timing really stings! He then left to go talk to the principal and I left to try and make my next zoom meeting. 

As I was leaving the school Shannon Kershaw texted me and I asked if I could call her before our meeting. I talked to her on my way home. She couldn't believe it. Shannon had also advocated for me to have this job. Anyway, we cancelled our zoom meeting until we found out if I still had the job. I walked in the house and Christine texted back. In between our texts Jarod Tucker called and asked if I wanted my job with Paula back. So... looks like I officially lost this one. I thought I was losing a job that would have gotten me $25,000 a year. Instead I ended up losing a job that would have gotten me $55,000 a year. Luckily I got my job that gets me a little more that $12,000 a year back, but dang it! Those numbers are rough to look at. They actually offered my old job to someone yesterday, but luckily she turned it down. I would have been so sad to finally get a job at Alta, and one that I really enjoy, to lose it this way. Especially since I was asked to apply for this job. Christine wasn't too happy. This was our text thread today.

Jorja and I went to the fabric store and then out to lunch. We went to Blue Lemon. It was nice to be with her on this weird, weird day.

Jorja

I went over to Megan Okerland's house today and talked with her for awhile. Megan would have been my assistant in my new job. I was so excited to work with her. I wanted her to hear what happened from me and not anyone else. Later today we went over to Lance & Angie Anderson's house. They bought Fred Anderson's house after he died. (No relation) Fred had this beautiful giant pond in his backyard. People would come and take tours of it. It is stocked with fish and ducks live there. Anyway, Lance and Angie are filling in the pond. Their grandson died at their house last month. It was awful. He was down for his nap and his blanket got wrapped around his neck. I wonder if they wanted to fill in the pond to prevent another tragedy. Lance asked Mike if he wanted to come over and move the fish and ducks to our pond. The pond was still too high to get any fish. Mike tried to get the ducks, but they did not want to be caught. Hopefully they will find a nice new place to live, but Mike gave it a valiant effort.

Mike & Preston

One random bit of news, I saw this pop up and sent it to Stockton. Sam went to elementary school with Stockton. Now he is on the USA Wheelchair basketball team. Pretty cool. Stockton was surprised he is in a wheelchair now. I wonder if he always has to use it or if he just uses it when he needs to. Sam has spina bifida and was actually famous before he was born. Funny that we didn't realize he was the 'Hand of Hope' baby until years after we knew him. Traci Fuller posted the picture on her Facebook page with Sam's name. Anyway, today was a weird day. That is all.